Shafqat was scheduled to be executed on May 6 after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had issued his death warrant on April 24.
IHC’s Justice Athar Minallah heard Shafqat Hussain’s petition today. When Justice Minallah asked the lawyer to explain how the court could entertain the matter which had already been decided by the Supreme Court, the lawyer replied that he was not seeking any order against the conviction.
He said he did not file the petition against the conviction but seeking the determination of his client’s age by a judicial forum.
Shafqat Hussain’s counsel said neither the ministry of interior nor the FIA had any legal mandate to prove the juvenility. They are not entitled to determine the age of a convict, he argued.
The counsel reiterated that at the time of the murder, Shafqat was a minor and should have been tried in a juvenile court.
Shafqat Hussain was arrested and sentenced to death in 2004 for kidnapping and killing a seven-year-old boy at an apartment building in Karachi where he was working as a watchman.
